Zombie doing magic ・ ゾンビの格好でマジック

Me in slightly out of the ordinary clothes.

On Sunday October 30, we had the Sapporo Zombie Walk here in Sapporo. I participated and dressed up as a zombie. After that, I was invited to a Halloween party at a friends house, and of course went there in my zombie outfit. I had some time to kill, so on the way to the party I also stopped by the Magic Shop Mebius here in Sapporo. It is a magic shop and I know the owner. He was very surprised by my looks, and had me posing with lots of weird props for 10 minutes or so.

Shopping for new props.

日曜日（10月30日）に札幌で札幌ゾンビ・ウォーク というイベントがあった。僕もゾンビの格好して、参加した。その後、友達の家であったハロウィーンパーティーにも誘われた。勿論、ゾンビのまんまで行った。ちょっと時間があったので、途中にマジックショップメビウスにも入った。マジックショップで、僕とオーナーさんが仲良い。オーナーが僕の姿を見て、かなりびっくりした。10分くらい色々な道具とポーズとったりして、写真撮られた。

I only knew one person at the party, though I had met one more once at a fireworks festival. The other 10 or so participants were all new to me, but they had apparently heard a lot of stories about me from my friend. Among other things, they knew I was a magician, so they asked me to show them something.

パーティーで知っている人が1人しかいなかった。もう1人は一回花火大会で会ったことがあったけど。他の1人くらいはあったこともなかったが逆に彼らは僕の話を色々僕の友達から聞いたことがあったらしい。マジシャンだって、皆知っていた。何か見せて！って言われた。

I tried using cards, but with my fingers covered in paint and fake blood, this was quite difficult. I did two of my usual card tricks from the magic bar that do not require that much in difficult moves (since cards were sticking to me at times, and refusing to move when I tried to move them at other times, that too was a bit of a challenge :-) that go over well. I also did a few rubber band tricks, and a coin and pen routine that I like. Sticking the pen behind my ear that is usually so easy turned out to almost fail catastrophically since my ears/hair/face were caked in hardened syrup/fake blood/paint.

カードを使おうとしたが指にペンキも血（本物ではないけど）も沢山付いていたから難しかった。マジックバーでよくやるカードネタ２つ（指先の難しいことがあまり必要ないネタ）やった（カード指にくっついたりして、カードを動かそうとしても動かせないとか、それでも結構なチャレンジだった、笑）。うけのいいネタで、今回もうけが良かった。輪ゴムのマジックもちょっとやった。僕が結構好きなペンとコインのルーティンもやったがペンを耳に刺す時に普段凄い簡単なのに、大失敗になりそうだった、笑。耳・髪の毛・顔、全部ペンキ・血・シロップのかたまりも付いていたから、意外と難しかった。

All in all, everyone seemed happy with my performance, and they said it was the first time they ever saw a zombie do magic. It was fun and interesting for me to, trying to adopt to the circumstances of almost not being able to use your hands. Or anything else.　Next time, I should do the "Zombie ball" trick, I guess.

皆喜んでくれたみたい。ゾンビがマジックをやるのは初めて見たって、笑。僕も、面白い経験になった。手がほとんど使えなくて（手だけではなかったし）、だいぶ難しい状況に合わせる経験になった。また今度、ゾンビ・ボールしなきゃね！

Tenyo 2012, The third eye ・ テンヨー2012年、ザ・サードアイ

This weekend I tried using the Tenyo "The third eye" props in the magic bar. Someone selects (while looking at the faces) a card from a set of five (with things like "love", "money", "fame", written on them) and no one except this person knows what card is selected. The card is returned, the cards are shuffled a little, and I place the cards on a stand.

先週末にテンヨーの新作品の「ザ・サードアイ」をマジックバーで使ってみた。お客さん1人が見て、5枚の中から1枚選ぶ。他の人誰も知らない1枚。カードを返して、5枚を軽く混ぜる。僕がその5枚をスタンドにたてる。

There is also a plastic eye, that when turned on blinks with a red light. I explain that this is a "magicians eye", and anyone putting this eye on their forehead can see what a magician would see. So anyone doing that can see which card is the selected card, only by watching the backs of the cards. Of course, no one else can see that, though anyone can see it if the receive the eye (and then the person who originally had the eye will no longer see it).

プラスチック製の目もある。赤色で光る。「マジシャンの目なんだ」と説明する。これを自分の目の間に付けるとマジシャンに見えるものが見えてくる。プラスチックの目を頭に付けると裏から見ても誰でも選んだカードがどれだって分かる。勿論、同時に他の人誰でも分からない。他の人でも、その目を使うと分かる。前に目を持っていた人はもう見えなくなる。

People found this fairly fascinating, and it works well as a fun way to kill some time. It is not a very exciting magic trick and no one is surprised by finding one selected card among five, though everyone is amazed at the properties of the magician's eye.

お客さんが基本的にこれが不思議だと思った。面白い時間つぶしになった。衝撃はないけど。5枚の中の1枚をあてることで、驚く人がいないって感じ。そのマジシャンの目が凄い不思議に思われるけど。

So my impression after using it two nights (though I did not use it with very many of our customers) is that is is a quite fun prop to use, and people like it. There is very little "wow"-factor but it is a nice piece. Possibly there are more interesting presentations you can use it for too.

2日間使ってから（そんなに沢山は使っていなかったけど）の印象は、面白い物だ。お客さんもそう思う。ビックリはあまりしないマジックだが面白い時間つぶしにはなる。他のもっと面白い見せ方があるかもしれないけど。

The properties of this (the physics behind it) are quite fascinating to me as a magician too.

物理的な原因も、マジックのやり方を知っていても結構凄いと思う。

Birthday

Saturday (October 29) was my birthday. It was also a very very busy day in the magic bar. The day started with a group of 20, which is tiring in itself. At the same time there were people coming in small number too. There were other large groups coming later too, and our magic bar was pretty much full from opening until 1 A.M. or so. We even had to put people who did not know each other at the same table since we ran out of seats. And we had to turn away 10 people or so (on a normal "good" day, we get between 10 and 20 guests, so turning away 10 is quite a lot; though we get slightly more people on weekends).

土曜日（10月29日）は僕の誕生日だった。 マジックバーで非常に忙しい日だった。オープンから20人の団体も少人数の人も来た。団体だけで疲れる。その後も10人とかの団体も来たし、カップルとかも沢山来たし、午前1時までずっと忙しかった。ほぼ満席だったから、初めてお客さんが知らない人と相席になったり…入らないお客さん10人もいた（普通なら、1日に10～20人しか来ないから、多い。週末はもうちょっと来るけど）。

Happy Birthday ヨーナス (Jonas)

At around 1 A.M. when things were calming down, one of my colleagues produced a cake and said "Today is Jonas's birthday! Happy Birthday!" Right when I finished blowing out the candles, more customers appeared and we had to put the cake back in the refrigerator right away, though...

1時頃にやっとちょっと落ち着いたら（トイレに行くチャンス！）、同僚がケーキを出して、「ヨーナスの誕生日だ！おめでとうございます！」と叫んだ。ろうそくを消した瞬間、またお客さんが沢山入ってきた。ケーキをすぐまた冷蔵庫にしめた…

At around 3 A.M. it finally calmed down again, and I could have some cake. Two of our regular guests also brought tai-yaki (fish shaped waffles with sweet fillings) for us that day (unrelated to my birthday, though).

3時頃にまたやっと落ち着いたから、ケーキ食べれた。 常連さん2人もタイ焼きを持って来てくれた（僕の誕生日と全く関係なかったけど）。

Tai-yaki, a colleague eating tai-yaki, and two customers who brought tai-yaki!

On the cake, "Happy birthday" was written in Latin letters and my name in Japanese... In our magic bar, if people ask for my name I usually reply "Jonas, as in the 'you' from Hokuyou-ginkou and the 'nasu' from nasubi". Japanese people often explain what Chinese characters they write their names with, since there are many possibilities for writing what is pronounced as the same name. I deliberately chose two words that people would not normally use to exemplify (the name of a bank and the word for eggplant), which sounds funny to Japanese people. So my colleague wanted the cake to say my name like that (洋茄子) but decided it would probably not be possible to get the cake shop people understand that over the phone, so we ended up with the usual ヨーナス. "Jonas" would have worked for me too, though :-)

ケーキに「Happy birthday」ローマ字で書いてあったが僕の名前がカタカナだった。マジックバーで「お名前は何ですか？」と聞かれると、だいたい「ヨーナス。北洋銀行のヨウになすびのナス、ヨーナス」と言う（北海道で茄子のことはなすびと言うんだ。方言かな？）。ヨーナスだけ言ったら、名前に聞こえないから日本人に伝わらないことが多い。ヨーナ？とか…北洋銀行やなすびで例えるのがうけるみたい。

同僚がその例え方が凄く好きみたいで、ケーキに「Happy birthday 洋茄子」と書いて欲しかったそうだが電話で伝わらないと思っていたからカタカナにしたそうだ。ローマ字の「Jonas」でもいいんだけどね、笑。

Magic Snack Ropossa ・ マジックのスナック「ロポッサ」

Me with something stuck to my face

Yesterday I went to the magic "snack bar" Ropossa (Sapporo read in reverse, in Japanese, sa-double consonant-po-ro --> ro-po-double consonant-sa). A snack bar is basically a bar with a high entry fee or high prices that also includes the "mama" and the other staff talking to you and entertaining you. So it could be for instance a bar with flirty waitresses. Ropossa is a bar where the mama does magic for you. She does not call herself a magician, and says that the place is not a magic bar, though.

昨日、ロポッサ（札幌の逆読み）というマジックスナックに行った。 ママがマジックをやってくれるスナックだ。マジシャンではないと言っている。マジックバーではないって、言っている。だが、結構レベル高いマジック見れる。

Food

  

More food (dried fish heated in the oven)

It costs 3000 yen to visit Ropossa, and this also gets you some food, and free drinks for your whole visit. If you are a magician, mama will generally not do magic for you (she thinks she is not good enough, which is not true), but they will pepper you with strange toys, puzzle boxes that just wont open no matter what you try, intellectual puzzles, novelty items, and lots more. Very exhausting! And very entertaining. You can also watch as mama performs magic to other customers, including lots of sponge rabbits, sponge penises, balloon swallowing, and spoon bending.

ロポッサの料金が3000円だ。飲み放題とフード付きだ。マジシャンだとばれたら、ママがだいたいマジックをやらない（マジシャンに見せる自信がないそうだ。全然大丈夫なのに…）。開かない箱・パズル系おもちゃ・知恵の輪・ギャグネタ・ゲーム、色々な面白い物があるけど。頭が疲れる！でも、面白い！ママが他のお客さんにマジックをやるのも観れるし。ウサギのスポンジ・ち○このスポンジ・スプーン曲げ・風船呑み、色々なマジック観れる。

They have lots of strange games and interesting novelty items to play with too. Yesterday they showed me some toys made from old used milk cartons. You fold the carton and put it on a table and after awhile it will jump into the air. They also had a box full of these toys, that when opened spewed out a fountain of milk carton pieces jumping wildly into the air.

ゲームやおもちゃも沢山ある。昨日見せて貰ったのが、牛乳パックで作られたおもちゃだった。折りたたんで、テーブルの上に置けば、ちょっと時間が経つとパックが凄い勢いで飛ぶ。箱の中に牛乳パックのおもちゃを沢山入れて、箱を開くと噴水みたいに沢山飛び出て来る。

A jumping milk carton

Lots of jumping milk cartons

Mama (and the others) are also very fun to talk to. Yesterday we had interesting conversations regarding the new Tenyo 2012 items among other things.

ママ（や他のスタッフ）と話すのも楽しい。昨日、テンヨーの2012年の新しいアイテムの話とかした。

Suspicious looking pants ・ 怪しいズボン

Yesterday we had the "full routine" rehearsal of our magic performances for the Christmas show of the university magic club. My rehearsal went OK I think, and there is still more than a month left to practice.

昨日、大学のサークルのクリスマスショーの「フル手順リハーサル」があった。僕のパフォーマンスがまあまあ大丈夫だったと思う。まだ1カ月以上あるしね。

One other magician had some really suspicious looking pants, so I took a picture.

後輩のズボンが超怪しかったから、写真撮った。

Funny Magic Clips: Helt Magiskt episode 3

Since I was away in Osaka and then got super busy at work when coming back, I just watched the third episode of "Helt Magiskt" now (the fourth episode already aired, I think). The third episode was also very nice. The sketch book magic performance that I talked about before was apparently from this third episode.


大阪旅行もあったし、帰ってから仕事が非常に忙しくなったし、スウェーデンのテレビの「Helt Magiskt」のエピソード３がただいま観た。エピソード４がもう放送されたと思う。今回も良かった。例えば、前にブログで書いたスケッチブックのマジックが今週の番組のパフォーマンスだった。

Joe Labero and the tennis star Jonas Björkman did a nice illusion where a huge number of people came out of a small box, they did some "street magic" in a tennis hall where the non-magician too got to do some nice things (bouncing a smoke filled soap bubble using a tennis racket with no strings), and they did a cut and restored necktie finishing with the non-magician pulling the shirt off of the audience member (while he still had his jacket on). I liked the street magic performance best, but all three performances were nice.

Joe Laberoさんがテニス選手のJonas Björkmanさんとペアになって、小さな箱から有り得ないほど沢山の人を出した。テニスホールでストリートマジックとして、面白いパフォーマンスもした。特にマジシャンではない方もちゃんとしたマジックをしたから結構好きだった（煙が入ったシャボン玉を網の分がないテニスのラケットで浮かしていた）。最後に切ったネクタイの復活とお客さんがまだジャケットを着ていた時にテニス選手がお客さんのワイシャツを取った。

Michael Halvarson and Sara Sommerfeldt did an excellent street magic performance, where first the non-magician made a coin disappear from the hand of a spectator without touching, and then the magician did some pick-pocketing. They also did a funny rope trick/spirit cabinet performance that I liked very much. The final illusion was a woman in a small box that then is punched through with things so there would seem to be no more space for her. I liked the fact that the non-magician had to do so much magic throughout all their performances, and that they were very funny!

Michael Halvarsonさんと女優のSara Sommerfeldtさんが面白いストリートマジックを見せてくれた。女優さんがお客さんの手に置いてあったコインを触らずにきれいに消した。 マジシャンがピックポケットもした。ロープマジックの有名な演目の凄く面白いバーションもした。大好きだった、笑。最後に小さな箱に女優さんが入って、マジシャンが箱に色々刺して、もう居るところがないって感じのイリュージョンもした。喋りがまた面白かった。マジシャンではない人も結構本格的なマジックを沢山やっているのが好きなので、良かった。喋りというかストーリも凄く良かった。

The final couple was Charlie Caper and Ylva Hällen. As I mentioned in a previous post about their street magic performance, that was really really great. They also did an escape under dangerous conditions thing, which I am not very interested in personally (but the "training session" footage they had in the show was very funny :-) Their third performance was great. They fished live gold fish out of the audience members' bags, the magician lost his bow tie (Charlie Caper almost always does) and the non-magician lost her shoe at some unknown point in time and suddenly these things appeared out of a suitcase. Which also sucked the clothes of the magician when he got too close. A very well thought out story line! Again, I like the performances where the non-magician ends up doing a lot of magic, which these were.

最後のペアはCharlie CaperさんとYlva Hällenさんだった。前に感動したスケッチブックのストリートマジックが凄く良かったね。脱出のマジックもしたが僕は個人的に脱出にはあまり興味がない。そのパフォーマンスの「練習」からの動画が非常に面白かったけど、笑。最後に凄くいいパフォーマンスもあった。お客さんのカバンから本物の金魚を釣った。何かのタイミングで、マジシャンの蝶ネクタイとマジシャンではない人の靴が消えた。ステージにあったスーツケースから出て来たがマジシャンがスーツケースの近すぎたところに行ったら、スーツ全部スーツケースに取られた。ストーリが凄く良かった。マジシャンではない方も本格的なマジックをしたし。良かった良かった。

Osaka trip: Tenyo in the subway! ・ 大阪の地下鉄でテンヨー

When moving from one magic bar to another in Osaka, I spotted some kids playing with the butterfly in a jar item from the Tenyo magic dealer! So I figured I would have to take a picture.

大阪のマジックバーから次のマジックバーの移動の時に地下鉄でマジックメーカーテンヨーの蝶々で遊んでいる人がいた。盗撮しなきゃ！と思った。